Esta es la versión inglesa de mi boletín, puedes encontrar el mismo texto en castellano aquí.
For this newsletter I was going to finalize a draft from more than two years ago dedicated to my relationships with pants. And then I realized that the attempts to intellectualize my fluctuating use of these clothes did not make any sense.
(A very brief summary is that in my adolescent and adult life I have had both periods of wearing mostly pants and also times of not having any. The death of the skinny jeans has just been announced and, after their omnipresence for 10+ years, I have never had a pair. My brow furrows on its own every time when I see a statistic like “the average American woman has seven pairs of jeans” or an article stating that jeans are the cornerstone of all wardrobes.)
Now, after several weeks of thinking about it, I think I can explain my occasional anxiety about wearing pants. And the answer is the same that I myself have given to professional organization clients when hearing laments of “oh, I would like to wear more ______ so much but for some reason I just don’t.”
Bah! If you don’t already, it means you don’t *have to*.
You have one body to dress and one life to live. You choose if having to try all the fads and styles forms a part of your contract with life.
It is usually just fear and not an actual calling to explore it all that frets about the biases of one’s wardrobe. It is the fear of missing out on something, of not living up to some standard, of not exploring enough… What if the perpetual peace and elegance are to be found with the x pairs of jeans or with the extravagant dresses that look so good on influencers? What if paperbag pants are the ultimate answer to all my sartorial anxieties?
Well no. The X-Files had it backwards, the truth is not out there but in here.
As always, I recommend observing what we acquire, what we like on Instagram, what we wear and what we don’t wear anymore, in which aspects of clothing we are typical and in which we are very particular… And knowing that a perpetual change in all this is to be expected.
And, above all, knowing that you are not missing out on anything.
Cuando una crisis es lenta y conocida, y aún así procede: De la ‘sopa verde’ a una segunda anoxia: las fechas que marcan el ecocidio del Mar Menor.
Y los JJOO nos han acordado que el sexismo feo aún está aquí: La selección femenina de balonmano de Noruega fue multada por no jugar en bikini, Gimnastas alemanas protestan en Tokio 2020 contra la sexualización del deporte y ¿Quién decide cómo luce el vestuario de una campeona? 2
aI am a sucker for people who actually strive to do ethical and sustainable business, so here you have ASKET’s Medium account. Enjoy the level of transparency and detail! And here you have Patagonia explaining their design and material choices.
A good example of how complicated it is to assess and compare the sustainability of different fibers: Is cotton more sustainable than wool?
I sometimes wish for a life where my job – or hobby – would be to think philosophically about teensy almost irrelevant fashion items like pocket squares: Setting a High Standard.
And that’s it for this week! I hope that you enjoyed reading and would be very happy to hear from you, regarding sartorial FOMO or anything else… in the comments below, via Facebook or Instagram, or via e-mail at luize.ratniece [a] gmail .com
Guardarrr is a weekly bilingual newsletter dedicated to sustainability and mindfulness in fashion. It is written by Luīze Ratniece, a sociologist and textile activist based in Barcelona. Guardarrr is both a tool for reflection and a crowdfunding channel for the wardrobe tracking app that Luīze is building. If you read this newsletter and value it, please consider going to the paid version to fund this project for a monthly equivalent of a coffee + pastry. Each subscription warms my heart immensely and helps going on, thank you so much for being here with me!
